The Lemurs
by Memma546
Summary: While waiting for the penguins and Julien to return with Mort - Plush and Cover - Marlene and Maurice talk about what the two lemurs mean to him...


The Lemurs

Summary: While waiting for the penguins and Julien to return with Mort (Plush and Cover) Marlene and Maurice talk about what the two lemurs mean to him...

**_Hey, those who know me, I will get going with Growth in magic...once I have more votes in my poll...at least 30._**

**_Skipper: *headwhacks HMemma546_**

**_Emma(me): Hey what are you doing? I'm talking about Merlin so only Merlin characters should show up._**

**_Skipper: You're on the Penguins of Madagascar fanfic site, soilder. I deal with insurbionation and laziness of my authours. And when do other characters from other fandom come into this area, Kowalski._**

**_Kowalski: Techinally...this is only an estimate...just diving the two...Never._**

**_Emma: Fine. Those who don't me, I'm HMemma546. I usually write about Harvest Moon and Merlin but once I get into something I sometimes pop out with a few fics about them so I can also be seen as a random writer-_**

**_Skipper: Get to the point_**

**_Emma: Right, right, sorry Skipper. I have a few penguins fic, one of them I really want to get up on the site. But seeing as it's a dark fic I decided to get my other PoM fics up on here. Really can't think of good titles so when you see a crappy title you know it's me. And the endings. When doing a one shot that gets me going it's diffcult for me to sum up. So don't critize the last line, please? *puppy dog eyes*_**

**_Skipper: Read and review people. Now Emma, smile and wave._**

**_Emma: *smiles and wave*_**

Marlene sighed as she begun to bid goodbye to the chimpanzees. Knowing that the penguins had reached their destination of finding Mort helped calm her worries a little. However there was still no word from Julien who, after the penguins had left, disappeared to also search for Mort according to Maurice. And despite the penguins being good at their fighting thing, Marlene knew that there were dangers out there that not even the penguins could get out of.

Mason noticed her anxiety and gave her a comforting smile, "You know, while we wait for the return, you could see how the remaining lemur is holding up. Apart from informing us about Julien gone, he hasn't left the lemur exhibit."

"Ok, sure," Marlene shrugged and then headed off. She expected the aye aye to be fine but couldn't turn down the chance of distracting herself from worry. She hopped into Julien's 'kingdom' to find...

"Er, Maurice what are you doing?" Marlene asked the upside down lemur.

Maurice was hanging by his tail tree that stood beside the platform where Julien's throne sat, his eyes shut until Marlene spoke. He twisted half way up to give her a shrug before going back to hanging limply. Marlene however wasn't going to let him go so easily. Feeling the otter glare burning his forehead, Maurice reopened his eyes and sighed.

"I needed time to brood."

Marlene raised her eyebrow, staring at the lemur, "Ooook...then why are you hanging from a tree?"

"Whenever I need time to brood, for some reason when I hang upside down from a tree, Julien leaves me be."

"Julien's not here though."

"Force of habit."

Letting out a complex sigh, Marlene climbed the tree and joined Maurice, "How long you've been up here?"

"Long enough that if I was a human my face would be turning purple."

Marlene was worried for the lemur but, as she turned her head to tell him they should get down, she saw that he wouldn't until he had stopped brooding. And she was here to distract herself from her own worries, "I'm sure they'll be back soon," She murmured softly.

Maurice groaned, "I hope so. I'm not really worried about those penguins. Nor Julien." Seeing Marlene eyebrow shot up, he smirked, "Despite the king not being that smart he knows how to survive. I suppose that why he appears stupid."

"What do you mean?"

"Survival is his top instinct and he uses it so well he doesn't show concern. It comes with being a king, back in Madagascar survival was top priority especially for a king. He not only had to survive what Mother Nature chucks at him but also assaults. Julien got so used to it that he just based his partying lifestyle around it all."

"Really?" Marlene asked. It was surprising to look at Julien in that point of view. Marlene had long suspected that the king was so spoilt that he didn't even know what danger was. Perhaps the lemur king was fine; she could now see him joined up with the penguins (probably getting on Skipper's nerves).

"So what are you worried about?"

"Mort," Maurice said.

"Oh yeah, well he is small, naive..."

"No, it's not that. Well it is. But-" The aye aye sighed, "Marlene, Mort is a trouble magnet. And he's is what you lot think Julien is; too stupid to know what danger is. The penguins can get themselves out of trouble unscratched. Julien can get out of trouble with probably only a little scratch if he gets distracted. Mort? I just can't see him being fine."

"Maurice, I'm sure Skipper won't let anything happen to him. You mark my words."

"You know this yet you're so worried, you're talking to me to distract yourself!" Maurice accused, growling. When he felt the otter stiffened in both guilt and fright (she had never heard him growl ever), he felt guilty, "I'm sorry, I'm just, you know?"

Marlene stayed quiet, only tipping her head to one side in question. Something told her that something else was bothering Maurice. Something big.

"Mort...Mort's also my little brother."

How big Marlene expected it wasn't _that _big, "What?"

Her shock unhooked her legs from the branch and she plummet back to the ground. Maurice quickly jumped down, catching her and twisting in the air like a cat so they landed the right way up. Marlene smiled at him.

"Gee thanks, thought I was a goner for a second."

Maurice nodded before sitting on the ground. Being upside for so long had finally got to him.

"Mort is your brother?" Marlene asked, in shock. Regaining his breath, Maurice nodded.

"He takes after our mother, me, our dad." Maurice said, looking up at Marlene, "Expect his eyes; I don't know where they came from."

Marlene only sat down, too shock to speak. Eventually her tongue loosened, "But...how...why..." Okay not so much.

"As I said before Mort is a trouble magnet. One time he was out collecting fruit for Julien when he was ambushed by the Foosa. He had run for safety, he's surprisingly fast for someone so small. He had almost got to safety. But he forgot one of the rules I taught him when I wasn't tending Julien: never look back. He tripped and whacked his head on a rock. Luckily some of the lemurs and I had heard the commotion and while everyone had ducked for cover, we rescued Mort and the Foosa was again left with an empty plate."

"But?" Marlene sensed there was a but.

"From the bump, Mort suffered amnesia. He forgot everything. To tell you the truth I was relieve that the hit hadn't kill him; it was a mighty whack for someone with such a small head."

Marlene gasped, "He doesn't know he's your brother?"

Sadly the aye aye nodded, his shoulders slouching, "The only thing he could remember was King Julien's feet. He wasn't so annoying in those days, me raising him and all; our parents were eaten by the Foosa as soon as he could speak. Julien let him help me with chores and one of them was massaging the king's feet when he was too tired to do so himself. So Mort became fascinated by Julien's feet and Julien lost tolerance with him. Can't say I blame him, Mort had gone from being cute, a little naive and a little annoying to cute, stupid and a lot annoying. Julien always been touchy with his feet and if anyone else goal was always to hug them he would have banish them. He nearly banished Mort one time, only I stopping him. Here at the zoo I don't mind as the animals are friendly and look out for him but it's the wild in Madagascar. So Mort stuck with us; through I had told him to stay behind when we went to Africa for his safety. Eventually he ended up joining us in coming here."

"Didn't you, you know, try to help him regain his memory?"

"Many times. Still am, in fact, when Julien isn't up to his tricks. But in Madagascar we were always on our feet running from the Foosa and here there are no memories. But I don't mind."

"What?" Marlene shouted jumping up, "He's your brother and you don't mind that he doesn't know you at all?"

"It's better this way, Marlene. Mort is a lot happier than he was being my brother. He missed Mum a lot in those days and...I couldn't really be there for him. With Julien and my job I could only be there for a certain amount of time and then I was either too bossy or too tired. The other lemurs didn't really like him; him being an easy target to pick on. Yet now he doesn't care about anyone's opinion any more. He's too innocent to care now and too crazed about Julien's feet. It's also easier to be closer to him as he's so open. Back then he stopped being open with me after some time."

Marlene sat back down, having trouble processing this. She couldn't picture Mort being this lonely and sad lemur.

"Is that why Julien went to rescue him?"

Maurice paused, frowning a little, "I don't know. Julien tends to not see anyone around him but there are sometimes when he does open his eyes. He didn't say anything about leaving; I was left with a recorded message," To prove it Maurice showed Marlene a recording tape, _very_ simpler to Skipper's, "I had gone straight to hanging from the tree."

"Why does Julien only leave you along when you're hanging down from a tree?"

The question brought a smile on Maurice face, "We were both lemur kids together. When we were little with we had a sort of communication. Well with Julien being, you know, him, I had to do unusual things to get him to know something was up with me. He didn't like to bother upside down people then, I think he was scared of them even; saying that their smiles were sad faces and their sad faces were smiles meant that they could seem cheerful when they were angry and angry when cheerful. So I hung upside down and Julien wouldn't go near me. Soon it became a habit but I decided only to do it when I really needed time alone."

"Ok, just one second. What?"

Maurice smirked, "That wasn't all. I forgot most of them but we used to communicate with us doing unusual things so each other would know it was something even important or just between us. Most of them were Julien's idea."

"So it was kinda like a secret language between you two?" Marlene asked as she understood a little.

"Yeah, like that. Through it was only secret when the other lemurs thought we were mucking or crazy. After they figured it out, we began to crease doing it. Plus around that time Julien became king."

"Woah, ok, slow down a sec. Have you skipped time or are you still kids?" Marlene asked as she tried to keep up.

"Still kids."

He sighed at the jaw drop Marlene made. Of course America was a democracy and unless she paid attention to history, she had no idea about royals.

"As soon as the queen-"

"Queen?"

Scratch royals, she didn't know anything about lemurs.

"Ringtail lemurs are usually ruled by women, Marlene. Through our clan has a range of lemurs because of the Foosa ravage attacks, the royals were ringtails. Anyway as soon as the queen steps down or dies either her next female descendant or the next female ringtail takes her place. But Julien's mother, Julien XII (Hey, we are from the wild) was the only female."

"The Foosa got her?" Marlene asked.

"Actually it was a sudden illness that got her. Of course that meant the leader role was open to anyone but the ringtail males didn't want to back down from power. Julien was still grieving and so the males sort of tricked him to self proclaim himself as king. Told him it what his mother would have wanted. They needn't have bothered. The other lemurs were planning to have him as their king too. Plus after a scandal, Julien banished them anyway and chose my family to be his advisers."

Marlene opened her mouth to asked what the scandal was but when Maurice sent her a glance, she realised it was, in Skipper's words, classified.

"Of course being so young made Julian become like he is now. He had never had a male role model to follow and through my dad was good at his job; Julian was just too young to know what he was doing. He knew it was his job to keep the lemurs happy and partying was his way of doing so. Strangely it worked. The lemurs could forget about their fright of the Foosa and have fun. Add that to his natural survival instinct and actually you have a very good king. Here though everything is different and everything isn't about partying."

Marlene nodded. It sort of explained the aye aye in a way. He always seemed to criticize Julian behind his back but seemed very loyal nonetheless. Not only did they grow up together but, in the wild, Julien was someone to look up to. Here he was seen as dumb and through Marlene thought that Maurice was too clever for the lemur king anyway, he had lost his devotion.

It explained him and Mort too. He seemed, like the rest of them, to pull away from the lemur slightly but there was a bond between them. Maurice looked out for Mort and Marlene had to admit they did act like brothers with the tiny sibling rivalry between them, like arguing over if they could invite Julien to their party when they had that fight over the broken throne.

"Well looking at that story, we have nothing to fear then." Marlene said. Maurice raised an eyebrow but Marlene continued, "If Julien made a good king in Madagascar he would definitely be able to bring Mort back. And if Mort survived a whack in the head then he should survive anything else."

Maurice softly smiled, "Thanks Marlene. It's good to have someone to talk to. Although I'm still worried."

"Hey, I'm worried too. But we can trust them to return safely."

The lemur nodded and they both got up. Maurice turned to the otter just as she headed to leave.

"You wouldn't mind keeping all this quiet?" He asked, "I kinda prefer it when I pretend there is no reason behind us lemurs."

"Your secret safe with me. I don't even know what we were talking about."

Marlene was an otter that kept to her word. However she couldn't stop a small smile on her lips as she saw the reunited lemurs hug. Ups and downs or not, they were the perfect family.


End file.
